Ukraine, Russia & CIS

There’s been a frenzy of EU trade related activity this week. It looks like it’s a big rush before the summer lull. Here a curation of what we found interesting. EU and WTO round-up The EU is pressing its fellow WTO members on fisheries subsidies ahead of the Buenos Aires …

The European Parliament endorsed a package of unilateral trade preferences granted to Ukraine on top of those contained in its Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU. The scope of the extra market openings to the EU’s eastern neighbour was scaled down after MEPs voted down last month a first series …

The European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament reached a political agreement in their ‘trilogue’ talks regarding unilateral trade preferences the EU is planning to grant Ukraine. The deal was sealed late in the night of 13 June 2017. The final offer to Ukraine could be made during …

EU ambassadors revised proposals to increase unilateral trade preferences to Ukraine today (6 June 2017), only a few days after the European Parliament voted to reduce the number of products covered by an offer made to Ukraine several months ago to complement the bilateral free trade agreement – DCFTA – that came into force …

A new paper by the Polish international affairs think tank PISM criticises the EU’s inconsistent way of dealing with the consequences of a recent Court of Justice ruling on a 2012 agriculture trade agreement with Morocco that it applied to products from Western Sahara. The EU should come clean on this issue …

The European Parliament adopted on Thursday (1 June 2017) a number of amendments watering down a Commission proposal to grant unilateral trade preferences to Ukraine. These preferences were meant to reaffirm European Union support to conflict-stricken Ukraine, and complement commitments made in their Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement – …

The Dutch Senate put its final seal of approval on the EU Ukraine Association Agreement on Tuesday (30 May 2017). The path is now clear for the political parts of the agreement, which encompasses a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, to come into force in the summer 2017. The …

The EU and Armenia have concluded a Comprehensive and Enhanced Cooperation Agreement today. The announcement was made during a visit to Brussels by the country’s president Serzh Sargysan on Monday (27 February 2017). The pact replaces the Association Agreement and its in-built Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement agreed between …

Russia is probably regretting having appealed the first WTO dispute panel finding against one of its most politically charged trade tussle with the EU. In September 2016, the dispute settlement body in Geneva ruled that Russia’s import ban on pork products from Baltic states introduced in 2014 and extended …

Russia has appealed against a January 2017 WTO dispute settlement ruling indicting it for not following the rulebook in applying trade defence duties against German and Italian commercial vehicles. The WTO’s main disagreement was the fact that Russia only took into account the damage to one company – Sollers – in …